CM Magazine: Make Your Own Performing Puppets

________________ CM . . . . Volume I Number XIII . . . . September 8, 1995

Make Your Own Performing Puppets
Teddy Cameron Long.
Toronto: Sterling/Tamos, 1995. 96pp, cloth, $27.95.
ISBN 1-895569-32-X

Subject Heading:
Puppet making-Juvenile literature.

Grades 4 and up / Ages 9 and up.
Review by Lorraine Douglas

excerpt:

Homemade and handcrafted puppets can turn a theatrical production into something special. Add your creative touch to paper, glue, paint, cloth, dough, wooden spoons, and other household items and you'll produce spectacular results.

This beautiful, full-colour craft book is a welcome addition to puppetry collections. The emphasis is on creating the materials for a performance rather than on making individual puppets.

In the first segment, a doorway rainforest with openings for painted hand puppets -- like the ones in Hanimals by Mario Mariotti (Green Tiger, 1982) -- is carefully explained. Clear drawings show how a bird's nest and thick vines and leaves are added. In other sections children will enjoy creating the "Slay the Dragon" castle and the dragon papier-mâché helmet. Other themes include a marionette circus, a felt character story board with a grid pattern for recreating the figures, a farmyard theme, Santa's house, an outer space setting, and a shadow play.

In the final section, the author suggests some finishing touches for productions -- posters, tickets and even decorated popcorn bags. This book is a good companion to other books which stress creativity in puppetry like Lois Walker's Instant Puppets for Kids (Pembroke, 1989) or I Can Make Puppets by Mary Wallace (Owl, 1994).

One quibble with the book is the all-white cast of children and adults portrayed using the puppets. A little diversity would have been nice. Otherwise, this is an excellent resource for art teachers and librarians looking for imaginative and fun ideas to use with elementary level children.

Recommended.

Lorraine Douglas is Youth Services Coordinator for the Winnipeg Public Library.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - September 8, 1995.